Other Economics Commons^™

The Influence Of The Electric Supply Industry On Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, Edward Richard Bee

Dissertations

This study measures the impact that electrical outages have on manufacturing production in 135 less developed countries using stochastic frontier analysis and data from World Bank’s Investment Climate surveys. Outages of electricity, for firms with and without backup power sources, are the most frequently cited constraint on manufacturing growth in these surveys.

Outages are shown to reduce output below the production frontier by almost five percent in Africa and by a lower percentage in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Production response to outages is quadratic in form. Outages also increase labor cost, reduce exports …

Associations Between Male Testosterone And Immune Function In A Pathogenically Stressed Forager-Horticultural Population, Benjamin C. Trumble, Aaron D. Blackwell, Jonathan Stieglitz, Melissa Emery Thompson, Ivan Maldonado Suarez, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Objectives—Despite well-known fitness advantages to males who produce and maintain high endogenous testosterone levels, such phenotypes may be costly if testosterone-mediated investment in reproductive effort trade-off against investment in somatic maintenance. Previous studies of androgen-mediated trade-offs in human immune function find mixed results, in part because most studies either focus on a few indicators of immunity, are confounded by phenotypic correlation, or are observational. Here the association between male endogenous testosterone and 13 circulating cytokines are examined before and after ex vivo antigen stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in a high pathogen population of Bolivian forager-horticulturalists.

Materials …

Multiple Openings And Competitiveness Of Forward Markets: Experimental Evidence, José Luis Ferreira, Praveen Kujal, Stephen Rassenti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We test the competition enhancing effect of selling forward in experimental Cournot duopoly and quadropoly with multiple forward markets. We find that two forward periods yields competitive outcomes and that the results are very close to the predicted theoretical results for quantity setting duopolies and quadropolies. Our experiments lend strong support to the hypothesis that forward markets are competition enhancing. We then test a new market that allows for endogenously determined indefinitely many forward periods that only close when sellers coordinate on selling a zero amount in a forward market. We find that the outcomes under an endogenous close rule …

Indirect Reciprocity, Resource Sharing, And Environmental Risk: Evidence From Field Experiments In Siberia, E. Lance Howe, James J. Murphy, Drew Gerkey, Colin Thor West

ESI Publications

Integrating information from existing research, qualitative ethnographic interviews, and participant observation, we designed a field experiment that introduces idiosyncratic environmental risk and a voluntary sharing decision into a standard public goods game. Conducted with subsistence resource users in rural villages on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Northeast Siberia, we find evidence consistent with a model of indirect reciprocity and local social norms of helping the needy. When participants are allowed to develop reputations in the experiments, as is the case in most small-scale societies, we find that sharing is increasingly directed toward individuals experiencing hardship, good reputations increase aid, and the …

Health Costs Of Reproduction Are Minimal Despite High Fertility, Mortality And Subsistence Lifestyle, Michael Gurven, Megan Costa, Ben Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Women exhibit greater morbidity than men despite higher life expectancy. An evolutionary life history framework predicts that energy invested in reproduction trades-off against investments in maintenance and survival. Direct costs of reproduction may therefore contribute to higher morbidity, especially for women given their greater direct energetic contributions to reproduction. We explore multiple indicators of somatic condition among Tsimane forager-horticulturalist women (Total Fertility Rate = 9.1; n = 592 aged 15–44 years, n = 277 aged 45+). We test whether cumulative live births and the pace of reproduction are associated with nutritional status and immune function using longitudinal data spanning 10 …

John Nash: A Personal Remembrance (Introduction To The John Forbes Nash Jr. Memorial Special Issue), Vernon Smith

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In January of 2011, three years after his 80th birthday, Games and Economic Behavior published a special issue to honor John Nash. In their introductory note, the editors, Avinash Dixit, Ehud Kalai and Stephen Morris wrote: “We are delighted to have the privilege of coordinating this expression of the whole profession's admiration and appreciation of John Nash and his work, and look forward to a repeat in ten or even twenty years' time.”

This wish was sadly interrupted by tragedy. On their way back from the ceremony awarding John the Abel Prize in mathematics, John and his wife Alicia were …

High Resting Metabolic Rate Among Amazonian Forager-Horticulturalists Experiencing High Pathogen Burden, Michael Gurven, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Gandhi Yetish, Daniel Cummings, Aaron D. Blackwell, Bret Beheim, Hillard Kaplan, Herman Pontzer

ESI Publications

Objectives—Resting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60-75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declines more slowly with age than in hygienic sedentary populations, as might be expected if older adults experience high pathogen burden.

Materials and Methods—RMR was measured by indirect calorimetry (Fitmate MED, Cosmed) in 1,300 adults aged 20-90 …

The 2016 Nebraska Manufacturing Report, Mitch Herian, Eric Thomspon

Bureau of Business Research Publications

The purpose of this report is to provide an economic snapshot of the Nebraska manufacturing industry. In particular, the report is designed to present contributions of manufacturing to the state economy, recent trends in Nebraska manufacturing, and considerations for the future of Nebraska manufacturing. The information contained within the report will help policy makers and stakeholders better understand the current state of manufacturing in the state, particularly in relation to recent demographic and economic trends in Nebraska and the United States. The report finds that the manufacturing sector has a significant impact on the Nebraska economy. Approximately 10 percent of …

Self-Correcting Kelly Strategies For Skeptical Traders, Aaron C. Brown

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The Kelly criterion gives the appropriate bet size in idealized situations with known parameters. In financial trading situations parameters are generally unknown and the mathematical assumptions underlying the Kelly proof are not met precisely. Moreover a risk manager typically must cooperate with a trader who may be skeptical about both the Kelly criterion specifically and the concept of mathematical optimization of bet size in general.

This presentation tackles the problem of designing a Kelly-based system for setting trade risk management parameters that is both self-correcting (the system delivers good results even if initial parameter are misestimated or parameters change) and …

Crop Price Patterns, Jessica J. Groskopf

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

No abstract provided.

Air Pollution, Temperature And Cognitive Performance In The Short Run: Evidence From Women’S Ability To Recall Dates, Ke Yang

Master's Theses

Abstract: Cognitive performance is important to productivity across many fields and potentially correlated to air pollution and extreme temperatures. We study the effects of daily ambient air pollution and monthly temperature on women’s ability of recalling dates across 42 developing countries from 1997 to 2009. We use an estimated natural air pollution data, and calculate the AQI to get an aggregate effect of air pollution. We find that one standard deviation increase in the AQI leads to a statistical decrease in women’s probability to recall dates such as birthdays, marriage date or children’s birthdays by 0.44 percentage point. Furthermore, there …

Air Pollution And Fetal Loss In The Global Tropics, Shuqiao Cheng

Master's Theses

Abstract: Recent work has shown that in-utero air pollution has negative effects on both contemporaneous birth outcomes and long-term human capital outcomes. However, only a few studies explore the effects of in-utero exposure to air pollution on fetal loss, and none of the studies has been done in developing countries. In this study, we examine the impact of naturally caused CO and PM 2.5 on reproductive outcomes in 40 developing countries from 1997 to 2009. We present childbirths and birth gender as measures for potential fetal losses. The richest model identified using variation in pollution between pregnancies with controlling for …

Long-Term Effects Of Gender Representation Quotas On Political Interest Within Latin America, Lismer E. Ovalle

Theses and Dissertations

This work measures the long-term effects of gender representation quotas within Latin American countries on various measures of political interest. Measuring effects on 18 countries provides a quasi-panel study with control using non-quota countries. Quotas have positive effects on confidence in government but negative effects on political interest.

Stop And Frisk Redux: Analysis Of Racial Bias In New York City, Abraham Gutman

Theses and Dissertations

Stop and Frisk is a policing practice used commonly in NYC. For some, equal arrest rates for non-white and white pedestrians indicate no racial bias. I challenge that conclusion and argue that heterogeneity masks lower arrest rates of non-white pedestrians. I conclude that Stop and Frisk is an uneven policing practice that carries racial bias.

Dynamic Behavior And Player Types In Majoritarian Multi-Battle Contests, Alan Gelder, Dan Kovenock

ESI Working Papers

In a dynamic contest where it is costly to compete, a player who is behind must decide whether to surrender or to keep fighting in the face of bleak odds. We experimentally examine the game theoretic prediction of last stand behavior in a multi-battle contest with a winning prize and losing penalty, as well as the contrasting prediction of surrendering in the corresponding contest with no penalty. We find varied evidence in support of these hypotheses in the aggregated data, but more conclusive evidence when scrutinizing individual player behavior. Players’ realized strategies tend to conform to one of several “types”. …

Immune Function In Amazonian Horticulturalists, Aaron D. Blackwell, Benjamin C. Trumble, Ivan Maldonado Suarez, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, J. Josh Snodgrass, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Background—Amazonian populations are exposed to diverse parasites and pathogens, including protozoal, bacterial, fungal, and helminthic infections. Yet much of our understanding of the immune system is based on industrialised populations where these infections are relatively rare.

Aim—We examine distributions and age-related differences in 22 measures of immune function for Bolivian forager-horticulturalists and US and European populations.

Subjects and Methods—Subjects were 6,338 Tsimane aged 0–90 years. Blood samples collected between 2004–2014 were analysed for 5-part blood differentials, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and total immunoglobulins E, G, A, and M. Flow cytometry was used to quantify naive …

Mean-Dispersion Preferences With A Specific Dispersion Function, Mark Schneider, Manuel Nunez

ESI Working Papers

A popular approach to modeling ambiguity aversion is to decompose preferences into the subjective expected utility of an act and an ambiguity index, or an adjustment factor, or a dispersion function. However, in these approaches the dispersion function (or ambiguity index, or adjustment factor) has very little structure imposed on it, leaving the selection of a specific dispersion function in applications to be rather arbitrary. In this note, working in the Anscombe- Aumann (1963) framework, we provide a simpler axiomatic characterization of mean-dispersion preferences which uniquely identifies the dispersion function from the infinite class of possible alternatives. Given the representation, …

Designing Contests Between Heterogeneous Contestants: An Experimental Study Of Tie-Breaks And Bid-Caps In All-Pay Auctions, Aniol Llorente-Saguer, Roman M. Sheremeta, Nora Szech

ESI Working Papers

A well-known theoretical result in the contest literature is that greater heterogeneity decreases performance of contestants because of the “discouragement effect.” Leveling the playing field by favoring weaker contestants through bid-caps and favorable tie-breaking rules can reduce the discouragement effect and increase the designer’s revenue. We test these predictions in an experiment. Our data show that indeed, strengthening weaker contestants through tie-breaks and bid-caps significantly diminishes the discouragement effect. Bid-caps can also improve revenue. Most deviations from Nash equilibrium can be explained by the level-k model of reasoning.

Plastic Pollution And The Global Throwaway Culture: Environmental Injustices Of Single-Use Plastic, Kristin L. Mcdermott

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

The global throwaway culture has created a cross-ecosystem plastic pollution injustice. The first to suffer this injustice will be the most vulnerable. Our oceans have become our dumpsters. The throwaway culture has created a disrespect of material goods that has turned the earth’s resources into rubbish after a single use. Eighty percent of the yearly 8 million tons of plastic that enter the ocean is single use plastic, such as plastic bottles, plastic shopping bags, or cigarette lighters.[1] Plastic has destroyed ecosystems, robbing impoverished communities of natural resources and of a healthy and safe living environment. First to suffer …

Information Effects In Uniform Price Multi-Unit Dutch Auctions, Joy A. Buchanan, Steven Gjerstad, David Porter

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We design a multi-unit descending-price (Dutch) auction mechanism that has applications for resource allocation and pricing problems. We address specific auction design choices by theoretically and experimentally determining optimal information disclosure along two dimensions. Bidders are either informed of the number of bidders in the auction, or know that it is one of two possible sizes; they also either know the number of units remaining for sale or are unaware of how many units have been taken by other bidders. We find that revealing group size decreases bids, and therefore revenue, if units remaining are not shown. When group size …

The Fair And Impartial Spectator, Vernon L. Smith

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understanding his model of the maturation process whereby people learn to follow general rules that honor the human sentiments of gratitude and resentment in others. Through the impartial spectator human action, subject to error, is governed by self-command. Smith’s model is presented in the form of a series of propositions.

A Complement, Not A Competitor: How Public Markets Can Support Business Districts In Worcester, Ron M. Barron

Sustainability and Social Justice

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible economic and community development impacts of entry-level public markets (e.g. fixed location markets, farmers markets, etc.) on the communities in which they operate. While there is extensive literature around their benefits to vendors, community health and public space, there is comparative little on the interplay between these markets and more traditional brick and mortar businesses. The background and definition of these markets, the basic common characteristics that define them, and some of the benefits they can offer for economic and community development are each explored. It then examines two different …

An Experimental Investigation Of Procurement Auctions With Asymmetric Sellers, John Aloysius, Cary A. Deck, Li Hao, Ryan French

ESI Publications

Electronic reverse auctions are a commonly used procurement mechanism. Research to date has focused on suppliers who are ex ante symmetric in that their costs are drawn from a common distribution. However, in many cases a seller's range of potential costs depends on their own operations, location, or economies of scale and scope. Thus, understanding how different bidder types impact auction outcomes is key when designing an auction. This paper reports the results of the first controlled laboratory experiment designed to compare prices between first-price and second-price procurement auctions for homogeneous goods when seller cost types are asymmetric and the …

The Relationship Between Water Shortage Concern And Age In Utah, Viviane S. Baji

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

It is unclear whether current water supplies in Utah will be able to accommodate the needs of the future. Population in the state is expected to double by 2050 and climate change models predict declines in water availability in the region. Public perceptions of the adequacy of the water supply (and concerns about potential shortages) are key factors that could influence water use behaviors and support for public policy interventions. This paper explores the research question: "Are young people in Utah more concerned about water shortages than older cohorts?" It was expected that young people would be more concerned about …

The Market Potential For Food And Agricultural Tourism In Utah, Miranda Bradshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Tourism is one of the largest and most economically important industries in Utah. Local businesses and government agencies may increase their tourism-related profits through targeted marketing and product development. As tourists may differ from one another in terms of trip planning, party size, the activities they participate in, and more, it is important to understand who tourists are. The primary research purpose of this study was to explore and better understand the different types of tourists who visit Utah.

Data on tourists were collected through an in-person survey. This data was then used to place tourists into groups according to …

State Dependent Price Setting Rules Under Implicit Thresholds: An Experiment, Justin Deloy Leblanc, Andrea Civelli, Cary A. Deck, Klajdi Bregu

ESI Publications

How firms make their pricing decisions is a fundamental question of macroeconomics. We use a laboratory experiment to examine individual choices in a price updating task that provide insight into how well state dependent models reflect behavior. We find that in general subjects behave as if they recognize the importance of a state dependent pricing strategy, but they are unable to ascertain this threshold with precision and they also exhibit a substantial degree of time dependence. As a result, they update prices too frequently, and perform statistically significantly fewer real effort profit-generating tasks than theoretically optimal under full state dependence, …

Can Nba Teams Benefit From Losing?, Ryan P. Hallisey

Honors Scholar Theses

It has been speculated that franchises in the NBA (national basketball association) lose on purpose because of the benefits that coincide with a team having a poor overall record. Teams that perform the worst are given the highest draft selections in the following season's rookie player draft, thus theoretically improving their chances of becoming a more winning team. Previous economists have used various methodology to prove that NBA teams do in fact lose on purpose; or tank. This paper builds upon this previous methodology to examine the direct impact, negative or positive, that losing on purpose has had on various …

Salience, Framing, And Decisions Under Risk, Uncertainty, And Time, Jonathan W. Leland, Mark Schneider

ESI Working Papers

We propose a comparative model of decision making under risk, uncertainty, and time, in which large differences in payoffs and probabilities or dates of receipt are perceived as salient and overweighted in the evaluation process. The predictions of the model depend on what differences are compared across alternatives which, in turn, depends on how the choice is framed. We formalize a class of matrix-based frames which applies to decisions under risk, uncertainty, and time, and we specify two important types of frames within this class: minimal frames which provide the simplest representation of choice alternatives, and transparent frames which make …

Ec 845 Nebraska Cash Soybean Prices And Basis Patterns, Jessica J. Groskopf, Cory Walters

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Alcohol Use On Economic Decision Making, Klajdi Bregu, Cary Deck, Lindsay Ham, Salar Jahedi

ESI Working Papers

It is notoriously hard to study the effect of alcohol on decision making, given the selection that takes place in who drinks alcohol and when they choose to do so. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we study the causal effect of alcohol on economic decision making. We examine the impact of alcohol on the following types of tasks: math and logic, uncertainty, overconfidence, strategic games, food choices, anchoring, and altruism. Our results indicate that alcohol consumption, as measured by the blood alcohol concentration (BAC), increases cooperation in strategic settings and altruism in Dictator games. We do not find any effects …